… Since the 2016 election, the partisan economic expectations gap—that is, the difference between Republicans’ and Democrats’ assessment of the economy’s direction—has widened to an unprecedented level, going from roughly 20 points during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama to 56 points today. Democrats now expect an imminent recession, whereas Republicans anticipate a robust spell of growth to just keep going. …
Republicans and Democrats are looking at the same economy and suddenly seeing very different things—a phenomenon as strange and postmodern, as real and surreal, as fundamental and endlessly interpretable, as a sinkhole on the White House lawn. Behind it are a number of long-term economic and political trends, nuclearized by the singularly divisive figure of Donald Trump himself. And the gap stands to have powerful consequences in this midterm election year, and beyond. CONT.
Annie Lowrey, The Atlantic